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Updated Monday, September 28, 2009 9:25 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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More effort needed to welcome foreign students

Taiwan also enjoys a distinct advantage in terms of academics, both in terms of liberal arts and vocational and scientific programs. Many of the departments that lack students at smaller colleges and universities are related to fields of production that have been moved to mainland China or Southeast Asia.

While the production itself has largely left, the technology and science behind the production is most advanced here in Taiwan, especially in terms of design and R&D, and foreign students will benefit greatly from attending these programs and returning to their home countries after graduation.

Taiwan also has the potential to become a leading center of mainland China studies, as the free academic environment here enables students of contemporary Chinese affairs to engage in free discussion and access Chinese-language materials that are restricted or even banned on the mainland.

College tuition in Taiwan is relatively inexpensive compared to other countries, and the cost of food and accommodation is also cheap here. In the past, when the Cold War rivalry between Taiwan and mainland China was at its height, many overseas Chinese students came to Taiwan because their parents were anti-communist and ethnic Chinese students were being discriminated against in their home countries.

But in the modern era, the cross-strait rivalry factor is largely absent and ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia have an easier time attending local schools. Students tend to choose schools in Taiwan or mainland China based on their academic credentials, prestige and upon what they have heard from other students who have since returned to their home countries.

While the government is no longer in the business of making ideological appeals to the parents of potential foreign students, it should be sending teams abroad to actively promote Taiwan schools to would-be foreign students.

Our government should also lobby more foreign governments to grant recognition and accreditation to degrees issued by Taiwan colleges and universities, especially in Southeast Asian countries.

Graduates of Taiwan schools who have since returned to their home countries and become professors should be invited to return as visiting professors or even permanently.

Schools here should also hire more foreign professors to teach courses here, bringing a more international perspective to Taiwan campuses. Bringing in more foreign students brings far too many benefits to be ignored.

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